Dorotka Goldstein

Dorotka Goldstein (F / Poland, 1932), Holocaust survivor

Biography

Notes: Born February 1, 1932 in Warsaw, Poland.

USHMM's ID Card

Dorotka was the youngest of three children in a Jewish family. Her father was the director of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in Warsaw and worked for a popular newspaper. An avid Zionist, he had traveled to Palestine.

1933-39: Dorotka's father established a soup kitchen in Warsaw for Jewish refugees who had fled from Germany. In September 1939 Dorotka was supposed to begin first grade when war broke out. Her father escaped to Vilna with other Jewish leaders. People were suffering, but she didn't understand why. She was content with her playmates and her dolls.

1940-44: After Dorotka's father brought the family to Vilna, the Germans killed him and deported Dorotka, her mother and sister to the Stutthof camp. Her mother died slowly of hunger. When Dorotka and her sister were sent to be gassed, a German saved Dorotka, saying, "Look at this rotten Jewish child; she has such beautiful eyes." Her sister waved so Dorotka wouldn't follow her. When the Soviets neared Stutthof, two Germans with machine guns shot everyone in her barracks. Lying sick on her tummy and weighing just 40 pounds, Dorotka felt the sting of two bullets in her back.

Dorotka was found unconscious in her bunk two hours later when the camp was liberated by Soviet troops on May 9, 1945. She immigrated to Israel in 1952.